Bosch launches offer for German solar specialist ersol

AGENCIESJul 4, 2008, 01.27pm IST

FRANKFURT: German engineering group Bosch unveiled on Friday an offer worth more than one billion euros (1.57 billion dollars) for shares in the solar energy group ersol.The public offer first announced in June has been approved by German authorities and values ersol at 101 euros per share, a premium of 68 per cent compared with its average share price over the past three months.It runs until August 8, Bosch said in a statement. The German group is also to pay 546 million euros for a stake of more than 50 per cent in ersol owned by the investment fund Ventizz.Bosch already has 28 per cent of the solar company on the stock market, and shareholders that own 3.56 per cent have told Bosch they are ready to sell as well, giving it a minimum holding of almost 82 per cent.The takeover is seen by specialists as the start of a consolidation that would see the emerging alternative energy sector coalesce into fewer, bigger firms, or into large divisions controlled by established industrial groups.